maskd2003 Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 numberlinhh... I think you may be looking at the wrong places for plane tickets... there are plenty of websites that offer it cheapASAP Tickets Econom - cheap airfare, airline tickets, discount airfareflight booking engineSearch for discount international airfares and cheap plane tickets oh meowgirl... it would be so fun to join a bunch of girls and you really do have a point with the washing the hair... omg... I hadn't thought about that.. that would be DISGUSTING.. lol you know... you might just be changing my mind... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maskd2003 Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 what do you guys think of bkclinic? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maskd2003 Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 Ok... I'm flooding this thing... what time were you guys wanting to go? I don't want to go over x-mas or thanksgiving... I don't know... a part of me just wants to do it sooner too... just so I can have a new nose sooner... :shame: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meowgirl Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 hey maskd2003, I think keropi and I are aiming around November, this should gives us about a month to heal before the festive reason. I mean I guess I could also do october depending whats convenient for people. I'm just going with the flow.. The main reason why I prefer the end of the year more then the begining is 1) gives us more time to totally investigate this whole thing from what surgeon > hotel > prices of fares etc (we dont want to rush into this girls and boys as this is a permanent thing and if it goes wrong we have to pay MORE money to fix it and also to fly over to korea again) 2) Ticket prices Im not entirely sure when the plane tickets to korea goes up and down but I know the difference between high and low seasons can be $££$ - I want to but the money saved into our accomodation. 3) Be a nice thing to have a beautiful new you in time for 2008! (hoping we do come out all beautiful and nothing horrible happens!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maskd2003 Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 Oh meowgirl... let's do it Oct... after thanksgiving sometime... it won't be as cold... I just recently saw some before and aftershots of noses done in Korea... they are 100 times better than how they do it in the states... anyway, needless to say, I'm impressed... and some of the aftershots were taken two weeks after.. and I couldn't tell except that they looked REALLY good! I'm so excited now!! take care! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jas3n Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 hey keropi. i did visit ozclinic yesterday (on thurs). and i did ask Dr Park what local and international cosmetic surgery societies he's part of. honestly he did not give me a conclusive answer; he said something along the lines of: i am part of all the korean cosmetic surgery bodies. i looked in his office and the clinic walls where they normally put such certificates and basically saw an authentic looking glass plaque for him and his colleague that states (in korean) that he is part of the: Korean Society of Plastic Recontstructive Surgeons (KSPRS) AND the Korean Association of Clinical Plastic Surgeons (the symbols were as they appeared in the website http://drpark.co.kr/eng/sub04.htm). i dont believe he could or would ethically fake these. I cannot 100% say i saw a membership plaque for the 'Korean Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery'. there were two certificates in his consultation room: One was for the IPRAS which is the main international body for just general plastic & reconstructive surgery (ISAPS is a specialised body of that i think) stating current membership. However he is not part of the ISAPS (international society of aesthetic plastic surgery)! i did not see any plaque to this effect. in fact the ISAPS logo is not the same as that shown in his website. that one is the IPRAS. I did not get a good close look at the other plaque unfortunately. However whether or not he is a member of KSAPS, i have no intention of having surgery done with him. there are a couple of reasons for this which i will go into shortly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jas3n Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 LOL! we'll see. hopefully yes. but the only problem is i have to schedule going to korea with uni goes. last yr i had exams till the end of november and this year is likely to be the same. so basically i'd arrive in korea at the very end (like 28 or 29th) of Nov at the earliest! ROFL thats some pretty funny stuff about ur bro. my sister is a complete opposite. shes pretty against it. she said she wouldnt consider surgery until shes like 50. but i know her well enough to say shes likely to capitulate to the idea and get something done too. maybe not in the next yr or so..but she will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meowgirl Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 jas3n im sure when your sis sees your cool new nose she'll want soemthing done! My bros ok, hes a typical bro looking out for his sis so im lucky there..mum also drives him mad so he wont tell her either Looking forward to your report on the oz clinic maskd2003 we'll see what happens nearer the time, we all keep changing our times anyway! never know we might end up going together.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jas3n Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 just a few things i wanted to point out: about the weather: you guys are thinking about the dates when to have it done. oct -nov seems popular; and june/july an option as well. i personally haevnt experienced it, but i'm told in july-august it's humid and hot. like around up to 30 degs celsius. i just had a look at my guide book 'Insight guides -Korea' made by the discovery channel or something and it says this is correct. June is the tail end of spring so that should be a bit better in terms of climate. according to the guidebook Sept and Oct is a dry and sunnier period, and a good time to go. its not as rainy as summer, and its not yet getting to the freezing temps iv experienced here. in nov i think the mercury starts to drop. its pretty dry too. when i first got here (dec 18 i think) temps were around 5-10 degrees. recently its been getting colder. like -2/3 at night is normal, and below 5 during the day. however its quite sunny which is good. The air is quite polluted tho! probably like any megacity, but i think worse than in the states except LA if i remember what it was like. btw im gonna ask my korean friends what the weather is like as well, so some of what written might need a change or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jas3n Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 firstly about korean friends..i met up with 2 korean-australian old high school mates here. honestly theres nothing more fun than hanging out with a local and his/her friends. they know where to take you, they can speak to the waitress/bartender/shop assistant/taxi driver, lol and of course they're great company. lol thats pretty much true with any international friend you might have if you;re in their country. so yeh..if you have the chance to..try to make some new friends back home. if they're korean and goin to korea when you are. even better! and about shopping... my korean aussie mate who was born in seoul told me they charge foreigners more than they do locals, this urban myth true or not is pretty much standard as in other asian countries. despite that..theres some good bargains here but not as cheap as say HK or Thailand (HK is cheaper for most designer stuff when sales are on, Thailand cheaper for fake stuff). i've been to 3 main shopping districts for young people (there are probably more out there) - Dongdaemun, Apgujeong, Myung Dong (not pronounced My Yoong Dong which i said first time round when i was here:S Dongdaemun has like 3 or 4 big shopping centres (5-6 stories high) selling no-brand clothes or budding designers with pretty good quality, nice and trendy designs and goodish prices. now im no fashion guru but my sister who is really into clothes, designers and posts on forums like ours (e.g. vogue) really likes it. i think nice jackets might cost $USD 100 and a top no more than $50. this is not a place to buy clothes for those aged 35+. just not upmarket enough. Apgujeong is nicer but also more expensive, most of the stores arent chain stores, but more boutique. A lot of them sell American stuff so you might as well buy taht back home. however some sell european and korean stuff. the look here is different to the US i think, so some of you might really like it. A bit expensive for me tho, like $1000 jackets that are just plain wool and just nicely cut are not my thing, id rather go 2 dongdaemun for that.. Myong Dong is in between both..i didnt get so close a look at places there tho. restauarants, cafes and ur DK or starbucks are there and mostly cheaper than apgujeong. i've heard Myong Dong has all the big fashion houses, and so does Apgujeong and Gangnam (the neighbouring suburb). Theres one or two malls in these areas similar to your Neiman Marcus in the US..called Hyundai and Galleria. They sell chanel, LV, manolo blahnik, Prada, Burberry, chloe.. european brands which i cant remember the names of..um yeh..and all that other rubbish ush: LOL! (jking ok) anyways its pretty silly but near even next to these malls there's like the boutiques for all these designers..so yeh plenty of shopping to be done..if you have the money Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jas3n Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 lol meowgirl yeh i bet she will. anyways. i have about 1 hr to write up something on ozclinic. this was my last day in seoul..until june/july. my taxi arrives to take me to the airport in 3 hrs and i need at least 1hr of sleep to function..off to Hk and then home for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jas3n Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 ok..ozclinic i booked in to see Dr Park at 6pm on thurs and i was expecting great things: like maybe a Doc as good as Dr Park (from Dreamclinic..bit annoying how the last name is the same!), and a very nice and busy clinic in a nice area. Things were promising at the start: B4 getting into the clinic: i got there by subway and the train station was big, nice, clean and more 'affluent' looking with cleaner toilets than most! (lol cleanliness of toilets is a key indicator of the areas affluence in my books). The clinic was only 30m from Nonhyeon station in a modern looking building (unlike Dr Jung). In the clinic: The entrance and reception area of the clinic was modern and aesthetically pleasing, with cream leather couches, wood panelling, soft lighting. The receptionist was polite, attentive and spoke adequate english (5/10 ability). ok Pretty much immediately after getting seated in the reception/waiting room, we were attended to by a 'counselor' (similar to the one at Dreamclinic and also Clinic 9..which i mean to write about if i have time in HK). friendly, smiling, attractive she basically made us feel more comfortable by making smalltalk and little things like getting us drinks, asking us about ourselves and asking about what i wanted to get done to 'break the ice'. she also did the usual other stuff of getting our details -name, age etc to fill out some sections of a 'consultation sheet'. This basically is something the dr fills out too in the initial consultation with things like diagrams, summary of procedures and prices. The counselors english i would give a 7/10. and with the treatment we got from her being so far better than in most other clinics. i was highly optimistic. after a short 10 min wait for the previous patient/client to come out -a mother and daughter (as is typical in seoul) it was our turn... Dr Park came out to lead us in. a medium height but pretty skinny korean man, he fit the mould of a surgeon in his 40s. glasses, not the best looking chap, sort of wispy hair. altogether he did not look like a brilliant surgeon nor a bad one either. he was friendly, more friendly than Dreamclinics Dr Park (that guy was a bit arrogant now that i think about it..but perhaps he had reason to be!?), and spoke good english but not great (8/10). we made a bit of small talk -mostly where are you from?, when are you going back..little things like that.. then he asked what i wanted to get done to which i replied my nose -stating the things i watned to do: 1. narrowing dorsum. 2.alar width reduction. 3. tip heightening and defining 4. straightening septum and slight nose bridge hump. as was usual in a cosmetic surgery clinic here, they did NOT ASK WHY i wanted to get this or that done and discuss that. Clinics here are less a counseling service and more about simply achieving the best and most natural results. Dr Park proceeded to feel up my nose to determine the shape of the underlying structure and to get an idea of what to do. this was good practice i thought. But then i noticed a smell. the smell of tobacco on his fingers..BlOODY HELL this guy was a smoker and his fingers smelt pretty bad. :s ok..that was just a small thing to me..but still not a good thing he gave an excellent description of my nose -what was wrong and what should be fixed - he even picked up on things i didnt even notice was wrong! good eye for detail. and one of the best descriptions i'd heard so far. Next we went through the procedures. To him, the best result would come from: 1. alar base reduction (they all say that). with the same method as all the other docs (which suggests for significant alar width reduction an open rhino is generally done) 2. inserting goretex OR silicon to raise my entire side nose profile from my face. unlike dr jung who was pretty obsessed over the type of insert this guy said either one was ok but silicon was recommended -he said there are no risks and it doesnt change over time. cadaverous (dead ppls) or autologous (meaning ur own?) ear cartilage could not be used for this procedure. 3. insertion of my own ear cartilage for nasal tip definition I had to ask quite a few questions to get a explanation from him -but he did provide a good one: he showed me in a small mirror where they intended to operate, he also did a few sketches. altogether he showed things in a similar way to how Dr Park of Dreamclinic showed me. however unlike Dreamclinics doc, he didnt speak as good english and he didnt seem as much of an expert (almost 10yrs i think hes been doing it now). i cant describe it exactly. but i had the feeling Park from Dreamclinic was a caliber above. still Park from Ozclinic's description and procedures were good enough that i would give 7/10. Some things i didnt like during/after his explanation: -he didnt suggest any alternative methods for doing the same thing, and when i asked this he just said this is the best and recommended method. i could omit a procedure or two. but this was his suggestion. he didnt understand what i was asking until the third time, and he seemed a bit slow off the mark. though to be fair perhaps in my case there arent any alternatives. - when i asked about the deviation in my septum, which is not severe but is notieceable and also about the hump (from slight asymmetry in the bone). he responded in the following way: he said he can also break the bones to alter the hump -which is fair enough. thats std practice and Dreamclinics Dr Park said the same thing. but he did not address the deviation specifically. he simply implied the insert would make it appear straightened or straighten it -no cutting of cartilage required. now i dont just want a pretty nose. i want a functional nose, if the deviation is still there but just not noticeable it means i have the same problem as before -one nostril being slightly more blocked than the other which is one of the things id like to fix. maybe.septoplasty is just not his specialty. -the choice between goretex and silicon. i would have liked a bit more discussion about it. Dr Jung has an entire page dedicated to this. remember Jung seems knowledgeable about this but is on the whole not a greatly qualified or skilled surgeon. heres what jung wrote: 'here is no ideal material but silicon is getting disappeared in nasal cosmetic surgery in the developed countries such as US and European countries.' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jas3n Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 Following the procedure description we went through some of the usual questions about recovery, post op care/visits and a few special questions i had from the consultation checklist from rhinoplasty4you.com: recovery/post op: recover for about an hr after surgery in recovery room. visit the day after for check up, then 5-6 days after surgery for removal of stitches (less than what other clinics normally say), 2 weeks after that it looks pretty good apparently. acc to Park i can get back to normal life the day after..(maybe he was joking!?) he said most foreign patients (like jung about 90% of his patients are korean) dont need to come back for another check up due to time constraints. but i was welcome to anytime. anaesthetic: general anaesthetic is an option but the one recommended for me was an IV drip (light sleep) + local anaesthetic on the nose. tho maybe general as well at times. according to him periods when the operation was painful, i would be made asleep but he said i could mostly talk to him during surgery. he wasnt very clear on this and im not sure about it either as i know buggerall about anaesthesia. Acc to him the anaesthetic is administered by HIM, but he said its 'easy and simple' to do. Lack of an anaesthetist raises one red flag with me as does his lack of a good explanation. Supervision:/assistance there will be one nurse assisting him it seems What does he do in case of emergency: basically he said its a very safe procedure and they can take care of it all in his clinic. sounded like Dr Jung a bit here -a yes man. when i pressed for more details he named some hospital as one he'd take patients to and taht was about it certified clinic? he said its a certified clinic. but how certified i dont know.i was honestly unsure what sort of questions i should have been asking here regarding facilities? did they have monitoring facilities in the Recovery room? EKG and blood pressure machines were the ones i asked about. it was getting all too technical for a first time consultation. he said yes but they would be unnecessary unless i went under general A. before and after photos: we had a look at these during the discussion and also after i had a look at about 7 pairs of photos (b4 adn after). there were some good results i must say and one or two that didnt look that significantly different (which iv seem in almost every clinic iv been to -a few average results..so i guess it depends on the patients to an extent). anyway on the pics almost invisible scarring. and all in all his pics looked pretty good but not fantastic. quite natural though. the golden question price: $3 million won!! the cheapest so far. all inclusive of painkillers, antibiotics and bandages (i asked about this too!), anaesthetic Altogether the consultation cost 5000 won and took about 20 mins!! OK having written this. you may think hes pretty good..and i agree with you to an extent. 7or 8/10 to the operation, price, results and surgeon all up (excluding facilities). but now ill tell you the bad news and why i will unlikely be doing mine here: 1. lack of busyness/clientele -maybe its just thursday. maybe its just cos its the end of the day. but to me it doesnt look like a big/popular clinic -especially when you count the no. of couches in the waiting room which is quite few -suggesting its like i observed. 2. lack of anaesthetist 3. lack of clear emergency plans 4. KSAPS qualification where was it?! 5. silicon? 6. the facilities this last point i say last as it came last in my consultation;my mum and i requested to look at the operating room and recovery room. and we were in for quite a shock! the operating room, while quite clean and of a decent size was old. old in the sense of outdated. i didnt understand how come the clinic itself was quite new but the operating room was so old. there were mission brown cupboards (like a 70s or 80s dental clinic), an oldish operating bed, metal trolleys to the side, and a few well used stools on caster wheels. All in all it looked quite amateurish. there seemed to be nothing really that technolgically cutting edge in there. i was reminded of my primary school days when i went to the government dentists for those free check ups that school kids needed to have. it was quite a bit better than those of course, but still...not what a surgery should be like if that wasnt what decided my mind it was the recovery room. horrible is the word that comes to mind. korea is a developed country, but the room looked a bit like something you'd expect in a developING country. lol. it was damn small, plain, with a sink to the side, maybe a table, and a large single bed that looked..well..slept in. im serious. it had pink bedsheets and pink doona that looked ruffled like someone just got up. seriously..shouldnt the clinic clean up after patients!? anyway that room looked pretty old -maybe slightly newer than the operating room. and it looked pretty uncomfortable. i wouldnt want to sleep there after an operation, in fact the only way id sleep in there would be if you sedated me, shoved me in there and locked the door. there you have it then: my prognosis. i wouldnt go there. some of you more knowledgeable in these matters might be willing to take a chance..and for $3 million won its a steal. maybe this place is ok for a simple job, and maybe iv been a bit harsh. but im deciding this relative to others iv seen. dreamclinic gets my vote until i find something better. alright i need to get in the taxi in 1hrs time. lol 15 mins sleep yes i think so good nite guys next time i write will be in Hk or aus! BTW: if anyone is visiting korea b4 i do next. pls visit these clinics to post up a second opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robinh Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 Hi jas3n! I'm new, but have been following this thread closely, cause I'm also serious about getting my nose done in Korea. Thanks for all the firsthand info! It's look like Dreamclinic is the best one so far. I'm just curious why you didn't consider BKClinic. It was mentioned several times in this thread, and seems to be the most popular clinic for all those gorgeous k-movie stars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qqguy Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 Thanksgiving? Do you mean "Chu Seok"? the korean thanksgiving day. That's around early October and the weather is cooling, non-humid. It is not too cold either, Perfect for healing. Dec will be too cold... anyway.. Hi guys and girls, I'm new too. Previously I had did eyelid surgery. I have lived in Korea for a short period of time, thus know some koreans there. If some of you are from Singapore, I do have connections for cheap korea Air Tickets and lodging. I'm looking to going to Seoul too for some procedures (around Oct-Nov), unfortunately/ (or fortunately) I'm not looking at Nose job, but chin/jaw job.. If you people don't mind, can i join in? I know Seoul well so travelling about should be easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
)
Recommended Posts